There was a thread here last year about someone who ran into that with his (presumably BofA?) Worldpointscard. A quick look at the Googles has a bunch of other BofA cards (Norwegian Cruise, AAA, BassPro) with that phrase in the fine print, as well as Barclaycard and various others.

I do think it's probably more of a "let's put this in here so we can close down the card if we don't like the way it's being used" thing. I can go spend $5k at a home improvement store to redo my bathroom, or I can spend $5k at a home improvement store to renovate a rental house for my biz... they won't know the difference. But since "let's go spend $_k on gift cards at the Office Supply store" (or grocery store, or WalMart, or wherever) is a classic points-churning strategy, it gives them the opportunity to say, "Hey, these aren't normal spending patterns for normal people. We think you're using this for business, and that's not allowed."

Ahhh! Just realized that that was your thread in the first place. So... how's it worked out for you in the last almost-two years? Did you ever experiment with channeling $1M in spend through one card, or did you split it up over multiple cards? Or did you decide discretion was a good idea, and ultimately opt for something a little less conspicuous? :o)

I still use the card, and still haven't had info on what that means. Is it in there for some type of legal reason for example if a customer defaults and says it wasn't them it was instead a corporation that made the purchase and they aren't liable, business purchases such not at at the retail level such as Sysco or food wholesalers, paying employees somehow with credit card, etc...

I just ask because I don't know anybody that can spend over a million on non-business purchases, unless they are shopping for cars and jewelry which I'm not.

Ah, gotcha. I know for business ccs and loans and such, I need to personally back it as a private individual, even though I'm applying for the card/loan/whatever in the name of the LLC. And then DH has to personally back me, even though he has no relationship at all to the LLC. That's what makes me think they don't want businesses running their $100k advertising budget through their rewards program, or people who do MS, or whatever, rather than any real legal liability issue.

Have you tried calling Customer Service? "Hi, I noticed in the ToS that I'm not able to get rewards points for business purchases. I have {hypothetical situation} coming up, and I was wanting to use my card for {hypothetical amount of money}, but when I realized the rewards wouldn't apply to that purchase, I'm looking at applying for a {popular non-BofA business credit card} instead. I was disappointed, because I really love my WorldPoints, and wanted to use it... do you know why it's so unfriendly towards small biz?" And then take the conversation from there.

Midori wrote:Have you tried calling Customer Service? "Hi, I noticed in the ToS that I'm not able to get rewards points for business purchases. I have {hypothetical situation} coming up, and I was wanting to use my card for {hypothetical amount of money}, but when I realized the rewards wouldn't apply to that purchase, I'm looking at applying for a {popular non-BofA business credit card} instead. I was disappointed, because I really love my WorldPoints, and wanted to use it... do you know why it's so unfriendly towards small biz?" And then take the conversation from there.

As far as I could tell in our conversation, it looks like their differentiation is between "retail purchases" and "services".

For a retail purchase, I could buy a bucket of paint, and they wouldn't know if it was for me or for a business. I would get points. Points for "retail purchases" seem pretty straightforward, and even though I gave him several opportunities, he never came up with any examples of retail purchases that would draw flags, quirk eyebrows, or trigger strongly-worded letters. Retail purchases are retail purchases.

If I bought a radio spot, though, that's not considered a retail purchase; it's a service. No points there.

He seemed unfamiliar with that no-biz clause in the ToS, though, which makes me think that the commonly-held theory about the reason for its presence is the correct one. I kept numbers out of it and didn't ask about putting $1M through on a $50k budget. :oP

That's one thing I was getting at is retail purchases vs. business-business payments for services. But who spends $75-100,000 a month at retail stores that aren't Cartier or Patek Philippe?

I figured the agents wouldn't be familiar with all the terms of every card, but I wanted to see if anybody else had experience with something like this. Is it just to save their ass in some weird situation, or is it because it's not marketed towards business, or because you can't put the card in a business name it can only be in a personal name.

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